Like the movie itself, the
saga of the 1954 version of A STAR IS BORN ($25) is a tale filled
with triumph, tragedy and a phoenix like rebirth. A STAR IS BORN
was produced by Warner Bros. and with a great deal of fanfare; the movie
marked the return of the legendary Judy Garland to the screen after a
four-year absence. At the time of its premiere, A STAR IS BORN
ran 181 minutes, which was considered long for a movie musical, even one
telling a dramatic story. Looking for a way to cram more screenings of
the film into a single day, Warner Bros. made extensive cuts to the film,
which reduced its running time to 154 minutes. As one might expect, the
butchered version of A STAR IS BORN ended up being commercially
unsuccessful and sullied the reputation of what was originally a very
fine movie. Additionally, when Warner re-edited the movie, they physically
cut every last film element in their possession, without first preserving
the 181-minute cut of A STAR IS BORN for posterity. For nearly
three decades, audiences were subjected to watching the horribly truncated
version of A STAR IS BORN. However, in 1983 film historian Ronald
Haver went through a painstaking process to track down the lost footage
from various sources and was able to reconstruct the film to almost its
complete length. The entire story of the reconstruction can be found in
Ronald Haverís book A Star Is Born: The Making of the 1954 Movie
and Its 1983 Restoration.

A STAR IS BORN tells
the story of Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland), an aspiring singer working
with a band in Hollywood. One night, while performing at a benefit, Esther
encounters movie star Norman Maine (James Mason), who comes wandering
onto the stage totally inebriated. With a little quick thinking, Esther
is able to prevent the Hollywood luminary from making a complete jackass
out of himself in front of an audience of his peers. Much later that evening,
a sober Norman Maine tracks down Esther in a small club where she is singing,
so that he may thank her for her assistance. Listening to Esther sing,
Norman immediately recognizes her enormous talent and on the spot decides
that she must come to the studio for a screen test. With Normanís help,
Esther gets her foot in the door, however it is her talent that makes
her a star when the studio puts her in her first musical. As you might
expect, Esther and Norman fall in love and get married. Unfortunately,
their relationship is greatly challenged when Normanís career goes into
decline, just as Estherís takes off.

George Cukor had a reputation
as a "womanís director" and this particular project does little
to dispute that notion of Cukor. A STAR IS BORN is very much a
starring vehicle for Judy Garland, but Cukor does get the very best performances
from both of his stars. As Esther Blodgett, Judy Garland displays an immense
dramatic range, something that was not really part of her repertoire during
her years at MGM. Norman Maine was one of the meatier roles that James
Mason tackled in his career and he carries it off with aplomb. Sure, the
sophisticated veneer remains present, but Mason brings a lot of depth
to the role of a man deeply in love, desperately wrestling with his physical
addiction to alcohol and a loss of control in his life. In addition to
Garland and Mason, the cast of A STAR IS BORN also features Jack
Carson, Charles Bickford, Tommy Noonan, Lucy Marlow, Amanda Blake, Irving
Bacon and Hazel Shermet.

Warner Home Video has done
a very impressive job with their DVD edition of A STAR IS BORN.
Performing digital wizardry, Warner has gotten its reconstructed film
elements to look quite good and relatively uniform. Whatever long-term
restoration work the film elements still require are not obvious from
this presentation. In terms of picture quality, there are certain sequences
of the movie that are not ideally matched to the rest of the film, but
even these portions of the movie still look quite good on DVD. At present,
Ronald Haver and Warnerís reconstruction of A STAR IS BORN has
managed to restore the filmís length to 176 minutes. This is still five
minutes shy of its premiere version and there are a few moments within
the movie where only the soundtrack remains intact and stills have been
inserted to replace the missing footage.

Warner Home Videoís 16:9
enhanced presentation of A STAR IS BORN properly frames the film
at its early CinemaScope aspect ratio of 2.55:1 and looks quite impressive.
The early CinemaScope lenses do have some limitations in their optics,
so the actors do appear a little fuller in the face in close ups than
they did in real life. Also, the CinemaScope lenses had a very limited
depth of field, which Cukor pushed to the limits with adventurous staging
and camera work during musical numbers. The transfer is usually crisp
and nicely defined, with some modest variations in image quality owning
to the shape of the reconstructed elements. Blemishes would seem to have
been digitally excised, which is a definite plus. In places, the movie
displays some noticeable film grain, although it is never distracting.
Colors are quite vivid, displaying that rich IB Technicolor saturation
of yesterday. Reds tend to leap off the screen, although there are places
where the most intense hues do appear to bleed just a little. Flesh tones
have that healthy glow of old time Hollywood, which still looks appealing
to this classic movie fan. Blacks are usually deep and true, plus the
image offers up respectable depth and shadow detail for a film of this
period. Digital compression artifacts are well concealed by clean, dual
layer authoring.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 channel
soundtrack has been adapted from the movieís original 4-channel magnetic
stereo soundtrack and maintains that 1950ís sound mix. There is distinct
channel separation across the forward soundstage, which includes the panning
of dialogue across what was once a very wide and very large screen. However,
there isnít very much call for directionality in the material. The surround
channels see very limited use; in fact Iíd say they are barely perceivable.
Since A STAR IS BORN is a musical, the music is the highlight of
the original recordings. Of course, the music doesnít have the clarity
or frequency range of a modern recording. However, the sound is very good
for a motion picture recording from the mid-1950. As normal volume levels,
A STAR IS BORN provides the listener with a very pleasant sonic
experience. English and French subtitles have been provided on the DVD

Basic interactive menus are
present on both sides of the DVD. Side oneís menus offer access to the
standard scene selection and set up features. Side two contains all of
the supplements, which are accessible through the menu system. The most
interesting supplemental feature on the DVD may be the presentation of
the three alternate versions of the musical number The Man Who Got
Away. This number was shot with various lighting, staging and
costume changes, showing how it evolved through the various revisions.
The song, When My Sugar Walks Down the Street, which was
cut before the premiere version of the film, is also presented on the
DVD. Also included on the disc is documentary and newsreel footage from
the Hollywood premiere of A STAR IS BORN. Production notes and
theatrical trailers for the 1937, 1954 and 1976 versions of A STAR
IS BORN fill out the supplements.

Hopefully someday the last
missing pieces of A STAR IS BORN will be found and the film can
undergo whatever restoration required, preserving it for future generations.
Until then, the reconstructed version A STAR IS BORN is a DVD that
belongs in the library of every movie buff who loves the Hollywood of
yesteryear. Highly recommended.